K-pop, K-movies, a Nobel prize … and now K-poetry: book of wise words adds to Korea’s cultural glory

A collection of wise maxims written by a 72-year old poet, calmly setting out illuminating advice to other poets, is the latest and perhaps most unlikely book to benefit from a surge in demand for South Korean literature.

“Kick against words like you would kick back on a swing. You’ve got to feel as if the soles of your feet are touching the sky,” suggests Lee Seong-bok in his hit title Indeterminate Inflorescence.

The work, which was printed in translation last year by a tiny specialist American press, unexpectedly sold out in bookstores, prompting four quick reprints, while the publisher spent his evenings sending out copies across the world. Now Penguin is to bring out the first big English edition under its Allen Lane imprint in November.

This news follows last week’s announcement that the Nobel prize in literature has gone to Han Kang, the writer who now becomes not only the first Korean to win the prize, but also the first Asian woman.

Han, 53, whose books include The Vegetarian and Human Acts, has seen her international sales figures rapidly swell in the last few days. More than one million copies of her works have been bought since she was named as laureate.

When the Swedish Academy rang to break the news about the Nobel prize, Han’s first instinct was to claim the glory for her homeland.

“I grew up with Korean literature, which I feel very close to,” she said. “So I hope this news is nice for Korean literature readers, and my friends and writers.”

The mass-market fiction trade is also seeing a boost in the appeal of stories from South Korea.

Recent bestsellers include Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Book Club by Hwang Bo-reum; Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo; and Barack Obama’s 2017 favourite, Pachinko by the Korean-American Min Jin Lee.

Won-Pyung Sohn’s hit, Almond, came out the same year and will be followed up next year with Counterattacks at Thirty: A Novel.

So the publication of Lee’s bundle of 470 lyrical insights on 14 November will mark the next, higher-brow stage of a K-culture wave that first saw K-Pop music sweep across Britain a decade ago.

Neatly, the poet’s book now numbers BTS band members among its many Korean fans. The original youth music trend has since been matched by the success of a string of influential South Korean television dramas such as the Netflix hit Squid Game and the award-winning films Parasite and Decision to Leave. Now the publishing world is enjoying this awakening appetite.

The award-winning Swedish translator Anton Hur, known for his work on the bestseller I Want to Die But I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki, discovered the Lee Seong-bok collection in a Seoul bookshop and was instantly beguiled.

Eventually he persuaded Seattle-based Sublunary to take the risk of publishing. Soon quotes were appearing all over social media, with admirers ranging from novelist RO Kwon to rapper Kim Nam-joon. And as Hur has pointed out, the market is ballooning. Until last year, there were only 10 or so Korean books published in English each year.

Lee, who was born in Sangju, is already one of Korea’s most prominent and celebrated living poets. For 30 years, he taught a creative writing class on poetry and, over 10 years, his students gathered his most inspiring thoughts together before they were published in Korea in 2015.

Josh Rothes, publisher at Sublunary, admits that he was surprised by the level of appreciation for the title, but said he also immediately understood why anyone interested in writing would want to own it.

“The book becoming a viral sensation was the furthest thing from my mind when I first read it because I was simply so engrossed in the book itself,” Rothes said.

“It excited me as a writer and an editor – the only criteria for the books I like to work on – and I knew I had to publish it.”

Related: South Korean author Han Kang wins the 2024 Nobel prize in literature

Many of Lee’s literary aphorisms read much like poetry themselves. Others attempt to set rules for better communication, such as: “If you only appeal to logic, you lose emotion. Ignore a layer and the poem is stilted, affected rather than organic.”

For Chloe Currens, the publisher at Penguin, the book is more than a handbook for writers and poets. “Lee Seong-bok is a poet but his words here speak to anyone creative who has felt stuck or uninspired. Its power to do this comes from its originality,” she said.

“I also think the book delights readers through its vivid evocations of the world and the creatures that inhabit it,” added Currens. “And through its power to surprise.

“I, at least, have yet to encounter another book that can meaningfully connect poetry with everything from prayer to the capture of Bin Laden to playing golf.”

• This article was amended on 20 October 2024. An earlier version said that Han Kang was the first Asian to win the Nobel prize in literature. In fact Asian men have won this Nobel prize, but she is the first Asian woman.